speech

I had to write a speech for Toastmasters, and I decided to write it kind of about the mission trip to Portland, but mostly about the homeless.
Tell me what you think-

Imagine only owning one outfit. One pair of jeans, and a t-shirt. Imagine having only $5 in all the world to your name. Imagine not being in contact with your family, and not having anywhere to live Imagine taking only 1 shower every 3 weeks, and sleeping under a bridge- if you’re lucky.

Seriously, try to imagine it. I tried to imagine all this a couple of months ago in preparation for a mission trip to Portland, Oregon to witness to street youth and to homeless people in general. I thought I had a good grasp on understanding these peoples’ situation, but when I got there I realized that I was unprepared.

It was the first day on the trip when I realized this. Our leaders took us to a downtown street church called the Transitional Youth, where homeless kids go to eat, hang out, get new clothes and soap and stuff, and watch videos like the cartoon version of The Good Samaritan and The Passion of the Christ. They had racks and racks of old clothes like you would find at Goodwill, and they said, “Pick out some clothes, you’re going to change and be homeless today.” So we all changed, and were wearing stained clothes that were too big and mismatched and stuff, and they gave us a list of things we had to accomplish that homeless people do all the time, such as collect cans and turn them in for money and ask people for spare change.

I was really grateful that they made us do that, because it was really eye-opening. I used to joke all the time that if I failed school and got fired from my job, I could always just become a hobo and live under I-40. I will never joke about that ever again. I know im oblivious to many of the struggles that homeless people have, but I do know that it is NOT an easy life.

So that first day we split our big group into little groups of 5-6 and walked out into the streets. There were two reactions: people either flat-out stared at us, or they totally and completely ignored us. You see, there are pretty much two different WORLDS that I noticed in downtown Portland- you’ve got the wealthy, I-own-2-cell-phones-and-shop-at-AbercrombieandFitch type of people, and then there were the homeless people who were just trying to survive, the people whose community we had just joined. And many of us had previously been in the wealthy group, and didn’t realize it until just then. I really experienced some culture shock.

I can’t say that after that experience I really know how it is to be homeless, though. I think it’s impossible to truly know how it is to not have more than 5 possesions in the world and live on the streets until it actually happens.

Anyway, Portland has the highest percentage of homeless youth. These are kids that were kicked out of their houses cause their parents didn’t want them anymore, or kids that ran away from home because their parents were abusive and/or into drugs and alcohol.

Our groups objective in Portland was to hang out with the homeless and show them Christ in us, and hopefully get them to go to The Door, another downtown church we worked at. As I talked to some kids, I realized that most of them were actually happy right where they were, because things were worse for them before they became homeless. On the street, they had a family of close friends, and they all have each other’s back. The sense of their community is so great.

So yeah, most of them loved their lives, and I even met one or two people who really loved Jesus. This one lady, Madeline, read her bible every day (it was the only book she owned) and she had such a strong faith that it seemed she could take anything the world handed her, even when she had to cut off all her hair because of lice and other pests and when she got food poisoning because she was so hungry she ate out of a dumpster. People like that made me want to be like God even more, so that I could show the homeless that their lives could be so enjoyable when they shared them with the Lord.

So I really liked talking to the kids, hearing about their lives and what they hoped to do in the future. Of course, not everyone was friendly. Some people were even very dangerous, because they were into drugs and alcohol. In fact, pretty much everyone we talked to used drugs. Even Madeline had been on drugs. It’s not something you can easily escape from. But a lot of them were just the nicest people I have ever met. Shane Claiborne, the author of The Irresistible Revolution, said that he was more likely to meet angels in the sewers of the ghetto than anywhere else. I really believe that, too.

I recently read a survey, and one of the questions was, “Have you ever given money to a bum?” and half of the people who sent it to me hadn’t given money, food, or time to a hobo! I find this kind of disturbing. I mean, its not like we never come in contact with them. They sit by many major roads in Albuquerque, asking for money. Jesus spent most of his time with the sinners, the tax collectors, the prostitutes. He said that what you do for the least of his sheep, you do for Him. Lots of people say that they admire Jesus for who He was when He was on earth, and they admire God for his everlasting love and compassion, but most people don’t actually put this admiration into action; they don’t hang out and show love to the sinners like Jesus did. When you admire someone, don’t you want to be like them? God says that what you do for the least of His sheep, you do for Him. If you show some care to a bum, you’re basically saying that you love God.

That’s enough to make me put a granola bar and a bottle of water in my car so that I can give it to the next homeless guy I meet on the road. I would discourage giving them money, because a lot of them use it to support their habits, but giving them food is really good, because they need it.

Shane Claiborne also said that he’s heard lots of people refer to the homeless as Jesus, because God said that the least you do for any of his sheep you do for Him. So when you serve the homeless, you’re serving Jesus.

So the next time you see Jesus on the road with tattered clothes and $2 to his name, I hope you show some compassion.